Artist Wu Bak ©DOOSAN Art
Center
The
DOOSAN Yonkang Foundation announced on October 21 that artist Wu Bak (b. 1991)
was selected as the 16th DOOSAN Yonkang Art Award in the Visual Arts category.
Established
in 2010, the DOOSAN Yonkang Art Award supports young artists under the age of
40 with high growth potential in the fields of performing arts and visual arts.
As of 2025, a total of 46 artists and teams from these fields have been
awarded.
The jury
panel — Je Yun Moon, Mun Hyejin, Park Gahee, and Bae Myung-ji — noted that the
nominated artists engaged a wide range of issues, from material explorations
and questions of identity to urban and ecological sensibilities. Together, they
offered important insights into the layered terrain of contemporary Korean art.
During the deliberation process, the panel focused
on artists who are at a turning point in their practice and who demonstrate
strong potential to expand their current inquiries through new perspectives and
contexts. Through discussion, the jury’s deliberations converged on the
fundamental questions that Wu Bak’s work poses to the medium of painting.
Wu Bak, Diorama Series (Wu Bak Solo Exhibition 《My very Educated Mother Just Showed Us Nine》, Space 9, Seoul, 2021), Photo: Jeong Kyun Goh. ©DOOSAN Art Center
According
to the jury’s statement, Wu Bak is “an artist who contemplates the conditions
of painting in a comprehensive way,” having “closely examined the visible elements
of painting, such as material, tool, and technique, while at the same time
surveying and interrogating the historical and contemporary frameworks that
sustain painting.”
The
panel further noted that his work “probes new possibilities within abstraction,
making “painterly time” perceptible through shifts in process and material.”
They viewed his practice as a significant point of reference for expanding the
discourse on painting.
Wu Bak, Boarderline, 2025, Gypsum board, joint compound, fluorescent acrylic paint, Dimensions variable, Photo: Jeong Kyun Goh. ©DOOSAN Art Center
This
year’s recipient, Wu Bak, is an artist who explores the painter’s agency not as
a creator but as a mediator. Working within processes of painting—where light,
time, space, material, body, and memory interact—he revisits the conditions
that sustain pictures. His practice involves writing critically about artists’
realities and pursuing exhibition-making as a collaborative practice.
Bak will
join the DOOSAN International Residency Program in 2026 and present a solo
exhibition at DOOSAN Art Center DOOSAN Gallery in 2027.
